Green Arrow is a character that I know precious little about. I know that he and Green Lantern have been travelling buddies at various times, but I never read the rather-famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow books. And so I am well and truly in the dark as I launch into the one-shoot to get us started in this brave new DC Universe in Green Arrow: Rebirth from Benjamin Percy.

Aside from one or two stilted lines, this is my favorite of the Rebirth books so far. Green Arrow: Rebirth does a nice job of setting the stage by (re)introducing Oliver Queen, self-proclaimed Social Justice Warrior and insanely rich person. He is Robin Hood adjace, although he tends to go in for Batman-style vigilantism rather than the whole ‘rob from the rich and steal from the poor thing’. Green Lantern: Rebirth spends a lot of time setting out Oliver’s personal beliefs in his conversations with the Black Canary, another do-gooder with the ability of really loud yells, who came to her desire to help people because she was apparently poor. It’s a nice bit of juxtaposition. In any case, it appears that Green Lantern is going to take on some weighty real-world concerns (in this case, human trafficking) as Green Arrow and Black Canary follow down the lead of a group of kidnapping sewer dwellers who are kidnapping people that totally happen to raid the massive homeless camp at exactly the time that Green Arrow and Black Canary happen to be there. I guess it beats them wandering around for two extra pages. Anyway, it’s a good book that feels like it has actual stakes and is actually starting a story rather than holding it for when the new #1 comes out, which is a nice move. Of all of the DC Rebirth books, this is the one that has sold me on continuing to read the story the most.

Verdict: Juxtaposed characters with the same motive and the weight of the issues faced makes this book feel more ‘real’ than some of its counterparts and makes a promising start for the Rebirth of Green Arrow (and Black Canary).

For all I Am Setsuna may wish to be the updated JRPG of your dreams, and is good as it might well be, it is worth noting that Zeboyd Games have been working through the JEFF time line for years now with a series of old school games concentrating on tactical battles and taking it the grinding, opting for pacing instead. Their biggest project to date is the Chrono Trigger inspired Cosmic Star Heroine, which you can watch the trailer for below, including glimpses of the Sega CDesque cut scenes. There is something wonderful about the tone and the music and how it all comes together to feel like a really amazing SNES game that never was.

The below contains a bunch of spoilers for Superman: Rebirth, the one-shot relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman.

As I’ve said in the other Rebirth reviews, I’ve not read DC Comics for a long time, but in the current DC Universe there exist at least two Supermen (Supermans? Anyway, actually it looks like from the info at the end of the comics that there are actually several others including Lex Luthor that will vie for the title. I kind of wish it was Lex Luger, who could defeat Doomsday with his forearm plate, but it is not to be). The Superman from this world is dead. I have no idea how he died, but he’s dead and Lana Lang and new Superman (who is in fact totally the 90’s Superman who has been conveniently living in obscurity and so is really the old Superman, I guess?) are going to have a comic book-length discussion about it. You see, Superman (the live one) is convinced that the dead Superman is going to come back to life like he dead. As opposed to Batman: Rebirth, Superman: Rebirth is a bunch of exposition and is really quite talky. Writer Peter Tomasi crams a ton of lore and backstory into this book as now-and-former Superman tries to convince Lana Lang that he’s not just some jerk cosplaying as her dead friend. Anyway, it turns out that dead Superman is, in fact, dead and so now living Superman (who I learned in DC Rebirth has a wife and a kid and a farm) will now need to be Superman full time. I actually really like the idea of giving Superman a family. It’s the sort of stakes that Superman lore has often danced around that has stopped him from being as humanized as, say, Spider-man.

Verdict: An exposition heavy comic that explains the Death of Superman in its entirety and is mostly just Lana Lang and Superman talking for a while and confirming that her friend is dead. Honestly, glibness aside, it does what it needs to do by setting up the world that this Superman will be in going forward and showing how he is distinct, at least in part, from his dead counterpart.